Backyard Camping Crafts and Activities

July 27, 2020July 26, 2020Leave a comment

Good morning everyone! I know I haven’t been posting as often, but I have been busy with stuff around the house. Most things have been simple projects, nothing really to blog about, but I think I will take some pictures, just to show you what I have been up to!

Today I have a special guest post for you all to enjoy! Back in February, we shared Gabrielle’s valentine printables. We have some new summer printables for you today. My family went camping a couple of weekends ago, and while I don’t have any little children, we still had fun with these!

Here’s Gabrielle:

Summer is finally here and backyard camping is super popular. You don’t have to leave the safety of your own yard to enjoy some camping-themed fun in the sun. Of course, no “camping trip” would be complete without plenty of activities. Below, check out some printable crafts and activities to get you started. You’ll be creating summer memories before you know it!

Creative Nature Collage Critters

Use natural materials found in your backyard to make creative critters. Collect flowers, twigs, leaves, and more to design unique-looking animals. All you need is some glue and imagination! You can download these printable animal faces here.

Campfire Story Activity

Have some laughs together by taking turns storytelling based on random story elements. All you need is a single die, the story creation sheet, and your creative mind. Each person rolls the die 5 times, circling whichever story elements correspond with the number rolled under each category. Download this printable story activity here.

backyard-camping-printable-storytime-activity

Sensory Scavenger Hunt

Discover the hidden wonders of your own backyard using your senses. Download this printable sensory scavenger hunt here.

backyard-camping-printable-scavenger-hunt-mockup

Constellation Connect-the-Dots

Connect the dots of some favorite constellations to prepare for stargazing. You can color in the constellations, making them as bright and elaborate as you would like. When the stars become visible at night, you can find the constellations together with your knowledge gained by drawing them. Download this connect-the-dots activity here.

backyard-camping-printable-star-constellations-mockup

Thank you so much Gabrielle! These are so cute and fun!

Okay, now I will show you our versions! My girls and I each created a collage critter. We gathered our supplies from around our campsite and then started gluing our pieces on. I love how different each one was!

Next, we did the story time activity. Um, I found out we are NOT very good story tellers! Haha! We had a story about a Ship Captain and a Vampire struggling to rule the kingdom in the middle of the dessert, a Witch and a Detective battling to save the world, and lastly, a Werewolf and a Detective in an adventure to solve a mystery on the ocean!

Lastly, we did the scavenger hunt. We divided into two teams and set a timer for 5 minutes. We tried to find each thing on the list and take a picture of it. We got one point for each item, but if we had the same answer, neither one got a point. It was interesting to see what we each came up with for our answers!

Can you guess which category each of these pictures went with? Scan over each picture to see the answer!

Fuzzy

warm

spotted

shiny

bird eats

This was so much fun to do together as a family! Thank you again Gabrielle for sharing these activities with all of us!

Here are a few other posts you might be interested in!

Cute Valentine’s Day Printable

February 7, 2020February 6, 20201 Comment

Good morning! I hope everyone is doing well this week! We are just a week away from Valentine’s Day and we could not be more excited!

We have a special featured guest post for you this week. Gabrielle from Siege Media was kind enough to send us this cute printable to share with you! I hope you enjoy the printable and her little post.

Valentine’s Day is coming up fast, and it’s the perfect time to share love and appreciation for each other. There’s nothing better than spending quality time with your family and enjoying a festive activity together. These folding heart cards are easy to create and provide just enough space for customization.

To get started, print out several of the cards below. Don’t forget to print front-to-back to make sure the pattern is on both sides. Cozy up in some pajamas, play your favorite music, and get crafting! You can also turn the activity into a fun pajama party and play some games, too. You’ll be making Valentine’s Day memories before you know it.

I downloaded the printable and did it myself. I made each of my kitties a cute little Valentine! Neither of them were super thrilled with receiving a piece of paper but they were mostly good sports about taking photos. I made the heart envelopes on cardstock to make sure they were more stable.

Click here to download the printable card.

Guest Post: Declutter 101: Strategies to Cut Clutter

July 23, 2015July 25, 20154 Comments

We have a guest today! Say hello to Anna Aamone! She owns a small cleaning company in Kensington, London and has some great tips to cut clutter. As you know, Lauren and I have posted a few organization and clutter busting stories too. So if you struggle with clutter in your home, here are some good basic ideas to help you get started on cleaning up!

Anna: Clutter is a serious problem, which could make you and your family feel very uncomfortable while living in your own home. The lack of good organization and time are usually the main reasons for the appearing of this problem, which over time could affect seriously your life. However, you can easily avoid the complications by adopting the great strategies we will present to you in this article. There are some basic things you need to know, which will certainly make a difference. No matter how cluttered your home is right now, we can promise you that thanks to our effective strategies, you will solve this unpleasant problem before you know it.

If you ask your friends, you will notice that each of them has his/her own way of coping with the clutter at home. The most important thing is to choose a strategy that works for you and which you will be able to follow. Remember that you will probably need at least a couple of hours to put everything in order, so better start planning early. Except time, you will have to be more organized and concentrated, otherwise you won’t be able to achieve the results that you want. You may even have to change some of your habits, but we can assure you that it will be all for the best in the end. Here are some strategies you could try:

• Make a weekly schedule – You will be amazed how fast you will solve the problem with the clutter with nothing more but good organization. Instead of wondering how you will be able to declutter the whole house for a day, you can save yourself a lot of troubles by spending a couple of hours every day in cleaning and organizing of the rooms. This is a great strategy because it prevents the accumulation of unnecessary things in the different premises of your place. Since you know best how much free time you have, you can create your weekly schedule any way you like.

• Don’t leave today’s work for tomorrow – Simple habits, like deciding to go through the pile with mail later for example, could be responsible for the mess in your home. That is why we advise you not to leave today’s work for tomorrow. No matter how busy you are, try to spare a couple of minutes of your time to sort through the mail today. The same applies to all of your other tasks for the day, like the cleaning of the wardrobe, the organizing of the kitchen cabinets and others.

• Divide and conquer – No matter how hard you try, however, it is not always possible to declutter your entire home in one day. In order to speed things up, you can purchase 3 empty boxes. One of them you can use to store the things that you want to keep after the decluttering. The second one you can use for the things that you could donate or give away and you can leave the third one for the stuff you plan to toss out. This is a simple sorting system that will save you time and will allow you to maintain your home always organised. You can go through every room of your place with the boxes and when you finish cleaning, you can decide what to do with the things you’ve collected.

You will see that it will be a lot easier to avoid the mess with the previously mentioned strategies. They may look simple, but we can assure you that they really work and you will achieve great results from the beginning. Don’t wait any longer, but start decluttering your home right now.

<a href=”http://www.cleantoperfection.co.uk/end-of-tenancy-cleaning-w8-kensington/“>TenancyCleaning Kensington</a>

Thank you Anna, for all your great tips! Hope everyone has a great rest of your week!

Bedframe Plus Desk Equals Bench

June 22, 2015June 22, 201532 Comments

Hello! We have a guest post today! My daughter, Haley! She made this awesome bench from some random furniture pieces, so I am going to ask her a few questions (this was the only way I could get her to participate!).

What gave you the idea to make this?

Haley-I saw the bedframe on the side of the road and thought the shape of it was pretty. I picked it up, but It sat for awhile, while I thought about what to do with it. I saw on Pinterest where someone used a tailgate from a truck for a bench, and then I remembered the bedframe and thought maybe I could do something with it.

Bed footboard

What pieces did you use to make it?

H-I used the footboard, which I placed upside down, for the back. The outside edges of the headboard were used for the arms. A desk was used for the seat. I used other pieces of wood for the supports.

Sides of the headboard

How did you start?

H-I started with cutting the headboard apart and screwed each side onto the footboard for arms. I took the legs off of the desk. I used boards across to give it support. Then added the desk on top. It wasn’t quite long enough, so we used the supports to help it stay.

Coming together!

Desk before

Desk after

screwing it together

wood slats underneath

What tools did you use?

H-I (with the help of my dad) used a drill, a counter-sink drill bit, 2″ screws to mount the supports to the legs, a radial arm saw and a skill saw.

Did you have any issues or problems when making it?

H-We used too short of screws the first time, and the wood split when I sat on it! We then added longer screws and now it works well. The legs ended up being kind of long and the bench is pretty high. I’m tall so it works for me, but some of my friends may have problems sitting on it!

It’s finished!

How did you decide what color to use? And what did you use?

Grey and turquoise

H-I am redoing my room grey and turquoise, so this was my inspiration! I used 4 cans of Granite Rustoleum spray paint and the drawers are Lagoon Rustoleum. I also added new knobs.

Great for storage too!

A cozy spot

Thanks Haley! The bench turned out great! It looks nice right underneath the window in the bedroom. I love it when my girls get creative too! Have you used old furniture and made it new again? I would love to see your projects! I hope you all have a great week!